I’m no longer alone..

Hi there! ::waves:: I’m Juli from It’s a Dog Tag Wife Life.

When asked to guest post, I was thrilled.  Bravo Tango Tees is such a cool organization; owned, operated, and founded by MilSpouses, who wouldn’t want to help with their project?  I’m excited to see where the Sisterhood of the Camo Pants goes.

It started out as a late night talk saying we wish we had more friends who lived nearby.  And that one day, as old ladies, we’ll all live in an old person community in Hawaii, drinking wine, doing Aqua Zumba.  Thus, the Sisterhood was originally born.  And we’ve called on each other now and then when we need a friend or words of encouragement, or many times, entertainment.  But it all had to start somewhere.  This is how it started for me.

You  know that kid that sits at lunch, all alone, but seems to not mind a whole lot?  That was me, but in the military world.  We’re sort of an odd couple.  We’ve been together over four years, and have never had to PCS.  We don’t live on post, heck, I don’t even shop at the commissary (to be honest, I’m not sure where the commissary on our post is.)  Life was fine, but I did feel like the kid at the lunch table eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It was a little lonely, but it wasn’t terrible.

And then the hunny (how I lovingly refer to my husband) deployed.  The first time wasn’t too bad, just a couple of months, but none of my friends in real life understood.  “Well, at least he’s safe.” “He’s only been gone three weeks, that’s not so bad.  He only has a few left.” “He can come home for holidays, right?”  Or my favorite “Well, my husband goes on business trips all the time, just think of it like that.”  ::Sigh:: They just didn’t get it.

When the hunny and I got engaged in August of 2010, I looked to the blogging world.  When I first started, I had no idea how many amazing and wonderful women were in the same position as me.  I started consuming so many blogs, I came home from work and would read and read and read.  Over time, I found several who seemed to “get” me.  And after lots of comments on each others blogs, and finding each other on twitter, I finally had “met” some military spouse friends.

The funny thing, almost all of these women, I’ve never met in person.  Yet, I feel a sisterhood with them.  We differ in age, region of the country, family status (kids vs no kids), yet I feel like they understand me better than many people who I’ve known for years and years.  When there were bad days, their encouraging words helped put a smile on my face.  The occasional card or care package brightened the long weeks during the year long deployment.  Also, just saying they understood rather than “Well, he’ll be home before you know it” or “You only have 3 months left, that’s not bad.”  They were even my biggest cheerleaders when I decided to start my own business.

I’ve never had many girlfriends growing up.  But in this community, I feel as I have more than I can count at this point and am so blessed to have the honor of knowing them and reading about their lives.  Nothing touches me more than reading a post and it expresses the emotions so clearly that I can’t even form in my own head.  And knowing I’m not alone.  

Juli

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Tagged as: Juli, No longer alone, The Sisterhood